<Begin Segment 10>

YM: Well, as kids, too, we used to go down the waterfront. And if there was any hole in the, in the wharf there...

TS: Yeah.

YM: We'd put a string or a...

TS: Nylon, yeah. (No nylon then, silk or gut lines and leaders.)

YM: Nylon [inaudible], whatever, and try to fish...

TS: Shiners.

YM: Shiners. And they're about so big. And we'd come home with maybe half a bucket full. And mothers would make that into a...

CK: Sushi.

YM: My mom used to make it into vinegar. You roast it or toast it, and then put it in vinegar, and eat the head and the bones and everything. And that was good. That was fun, going down to the wharf to go fishing. And we never got into trouble that way, but...

CK: No.

TS: No.

YM: It was fun. It was good, clean fun.

TS: And if you're lucky, you get a perch.

YM: (Yes).

TS: Did you use the worms, those kinda hairy worms, long ones? Or do you remember?

YM: I -- (yes). I don't mind. And another thing, we used to go get worms down at Alki, but there isn't a worm to be found in Alki anymore.

TS: Oh, really? Oh.

YM: This was right after the war or thereabouts. We, Dad and I went out looking for worms out there, and there weren't any.

TS: No more, huh?

SF: These are, like the kinda salt-water worms and...

YM: Uh-huh.

SF: What, you used that for what kinda fish?

YM: Well --

CK: Shiners.

TS: Shiners. Perch. Rock cod, if you're lucky. Used --

CK: Used to get shrimp down there, too.

TS: Shrimp, yeah. (In these days, they had commercial shrimp fishing boats out in Elliot Bay.)

YM: Shrimp, yeah.

TS: You used to see shrimp down there.

YM: I went with George's dad to get shrimp --

CK: Yeah.

YM: And they're --

TS: Now they're getting -- whatchamacallit? -- out there.

CK: Oh. Smelt?

TS: No, no. That wiggly thing. What do you call it?

YM: Calamari.

TS: Yeah.

CK: Squid?

TS: Calamari.

YM: Squid.

TS: Squid. Now they get squid.

YM: (Yes). There never used to be squid around there.

TS: Huh?

TS: Never used to be.

YM: I don't think there used to be squid in those days.

TS: Well, they used to have a commercial shrimp fishery, Elliott (Bay), for a while.

YM: Now they don't want us to eat any of the bottom fish, 'cause there's too many...

CK: Toxic.

YM: Toxic minerals, or whatever there now.

SF: In those days, fish must've been the, the cheapest kinda food, right?

TS: Yeah. Was free. No license.

YM: I remember some men would come with bucketfuls, and come to our store and have them sell it, or, or Dad would buy it or whatever.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.